Placer County sheriff identifies remains of Sacramento woman found 25 years ago

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office identified the skeletal remains of a woman found dead in a rural area 25 years ago, the agency said Wednesday.

Zania Lynette Williams was 34 years old when she disappeared from her Sacramento home around Christmas in 2000. Her remains were found near Driver’s Flat Road in Foresthill, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. Her cause of death is undetermined, said Elise Soviar, a spokesperson with the Sheriff’s Office.

Mushroom foragers found in March 2001 a partial skull in a ditch near a creek, according to a news release from Othram, Inc., a forensic laboratory that specializes in genetic genealogy and helped to identify Williams.

Detectives swept the area with cadaver dogs to search for additional human remains. The woman had healed fractures to her left eye, nasal area and lower left arm, the release said.

The Sheriff’s Office classified the remains as a Jane Doe before the case went cold. Investigators could not identify the woman using technology at the time, the release said. Her dental records did not match with any those archived in a missing and unidentified persons database, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A new cold case investigations team created in 2023 by the Sheriff’s Office reopened Williams’ case. They used “advancements in forensic technologies, including genetic genealogy” to identify Williams, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Last year, investigators sent a “DNA profile” to Othram Inc. and partnered with an investigative genetic genealogy center at a college in New Jersey to find her relatives.

Investigators found a “possible relative” and retrieved their DNA, the Sheriff’s Office said.

In March 2025, the remains were identified as Williams, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Soviar said detectives are investigating who saw WIlliams last and what happened to her. Anyone with information about Williams case is asked to email the Sheriff’s Office at PCSOTipLine@placer.ca.gov.

“While the circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation, we hope the identification brings a sense of closure to her surviving family members after nearly 25 years of uncertainty,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 5:23 PM.